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My wife and I drove nearly two hours on Saturday with all intenions of seeing Big Fish.  When we arrived at the theater, we found out that Big Fish was completely sold out.  The only two movies that weren't sold out were Lost In Translation and House Of Sand And Fog.  

I had wanted to see House due to my infatuation with Jennifer Connelly.  I mentioned buying tickets to the film and my wife said that would be fine.  Unfortunatly, she was under a misconception about the film.  She thought that it was supposed to be a thriller......

Anyway, the film follows Kathy (Connelly) a young woman who's home is taken by the county for a back owed business tax.  The thing is, Kathy never owned a business.  The house was taken wrongfully.   The county then sells the home to a Mr. Behrani (Ben Kingsley) and his Iranian family.  He was once rich in his home country, and has the same dreams about America.  He plans on buying the house at a low cost and selling it at four times the price.

The film mainly revolves around Connelly's interaction with the family.  After she is told by her lawyer that there is no chance she could get the house back, she decides to take matters into her own hands.  She is constantly going to the home, confronting Behrani.  Their seemingly small encounters finally escalates into full on disaster.

I really don't want to give away much about this film.  It is masterfully directed by first time director Vadim Perelman and has strong performances all around, especially by Kingsley.  It has a deep feeling of depression that almost oozes out of the screen.  By the end of the film I was crying like a baby as was most of the rest of the audience.  

While we were all leaving, you would have thought us to be leaving a funeral.  The overall feeling was quite a somber one.  I felt empty by the end of the film yet part of me felt fulfilled.  I can't explain any more than that.  I will say though that this is one of the best films I have ever seen in the theater.

Being as the film was released last year, I now consider it the best film (that I saw anyway) of last year.  Depressing, insightful and overall amazing.

9.5/10